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How-To Geek

Nothing’s worse than booting up your laptop in a public place and subjecting everyone around you to the Ubuntu login sounds. We’ll show you how to disable both login sounds for good.

Note: This method was tested in Ubuntu 10.04. For older versions of Ubuntu, please see this article.

Disable the User Login Sound

By default, when you log into your Ubuntu desktop, a program will run that plays a sound to greet you. Let’s disable that program!

Click on System > Preferences > Startup Applications.

Scroll through the list and find the GNOME Login Sound program. Uncheck the checkbox (or click Remove to permanently remove the option from this list).

Disable the Login Ready Sound

In addition to the sound that plays when you log in, a sound may play when the Ubuntu log in screen is ready for you to log in.

To disable this, click on System > Administration > Login Screen.

This change requires super user privileges, so assuming you have them, click on the Unlock button and enter your password.

Once unlocked, you can uncheck the “Play login sound” checkbox.

Conclusion

While the login sounds can be helpful, especially if your computer is older and you have to make a sandwich while your computer boots up, they can also be very annoying. If you want to turn them off, make sure you disable both of the login sounds!

Comments (6)

How can I remove Ubuntu from my computer? I had the disk and was wanting to play around with Ubuntu to see if I liked it. Somehow, I ended up installing it on my computer. Now, every time I boot up my computer the Ubuntu menu comes up and I have to space down the menu and select Windows. But, I’d really like to just remove it. Can you help ? Please email your comments to above address and use the subject line Remove Ubuntu. Thanks much./

Thanks for this, very helpful. The current (10.04) state of sound control seems broken from a UI perspective. Specifically, System->Preferences->Sound only allows me ot select a ‘sound theme’ either ‘Ubuntu’ or ‘no sounds’, and no way to edit the sound theme. Discovering that ‘GNOME login sound’ is regarded as a startup app and not part of the sound setup is just weird!

The option for turning off the drum sound in Ubuntu 10.04 did not work for me (System->Administration->Login Screen, uncheck “Play login sound”), until I also chose “User defined session” in the box Select as default session (same window, bottom). I could be applicable only to ThinkPad T410.

I have a very annoying sound occurring when I click any internet applications, or command buttons like okay. It sounds like a “thunk” and I can’t disable it in the sound preference menu. This, is no doubt a result of my recent update which is fucking infuriating.